Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Yay For Technology!

Many of us in Cambridge Bay are excited this week as Bell Canada Mobility bought out Northwestel Mobility and erected a new cell phone tower. People who had any newer smart phones could not use them up here, most residents were using older cell phones or Blackberries. Now, being married to a LeBleu you can guess that we were the first in line to purchase an IPhone, well maybe not the first but pretty darn close. I have already been checking out any and all GSP covers for the IPhone 5S online. All I can say is what a difference, plus I can now phone or text anywhere in Canada and it's unlimited. So who was the first person I called tonight, my mommy of course. I guess with CHARS (Canada High Arctic Research Station) coming up here soon cell phone companies had to step up and come into the 21 century...now if we can only get faster internet.

Last Friday the high school asked if I could come in and talk to the grade 8 students about dog obedience, care and a bit of first aid. I wasn't sure who to bring, either Miss Molly or Blitz as I have retired Hannah. It is very bitter sweet or me as I am closing yet another page with my old girl and opening a new one with the boy. I had my moments of breakdown while I bathed Blitz the night before his school visit as for the past 12 years it was Hannah and I visiting schools, senior residents and fundraising events - she was my right hand dog. I wasn't sure how Blitz was going to react and behave as he is a bit of a wild child. His sensitive side took over and he was so well behaved and I couldn't be any prouder of him.

Having his pre-visit bath

Hannah took over the spot where we set up the heat lamp for Blitz

Chilling with me in the office

Well deserved sun spot after his school visit

The Elks Victoria Island Dart League, the league that Craig belongs to, held their 2nd Annual Tim Walsh Memorial Dart Tournament. I had the opportunity to go and take a few pictures mostly for Nunatsiaq Online. The funds raised from the tournament go to the Canadian Cancer Society as Tim, who was an active dart player, passed away from cancer a couple of years ago. The first two pics made it in Nunatsiaq News.

An overview of the tournament

Bernie Atatahak taking aim

Oh Howard! Same pose different venue. lol

Exciting things are happening at my work these past few weeks. Let me give you a bit of history, a couple years ago we received a new rack system for our freezers and it was installed upstairs. Much larger and heavier but more energy efficient, basically cut our power in half and that's huge up here. That's the good news, bad news is the rack put a lot of stress on our building and we had to get some structural engineers up here from Yellowknife to assess the building. Everything at my end of the plant had to be reinforced, huge beams and pillars are in place now - on the main floor and underneath the building. I now feel so much safer and the best news is that I am getting a large storage area just off my office. How did we achieve this? The construction team removed the unused shower areas in the bathrooms which are located just behind my office and made a room for me and all of my stuff. I have a lot of stuff! Paint is completed and they are just working on the new floor in the storage area and the bathrooms and locker areas.

This is a good view from my office door.

All of the putty that you see on the wall are from all of the stress cracks.

So messy but so well worth it

The storage area walls and ceiling are completed now and just the flooring needs to go in.

Once done I will update you all with some new pictures.

I forgot some paperwork at work this past week so I thought I'd bring Blitz with me for a drive. Of course he had to wait in the truck while I went inside to fetch my papers and when I came back this is how I found him...I wonder sometimes if he is part human.

He thinks he can drive the truck

Seriously Blitz get your paw off the steering wheel and move over.

Last Sunday I got the brainy idea to head out with Miss Molly and Blitz for a run. "It's ok, just a bit blowing snow" I told Craig. Yeah right!

Our view to the golf course

That little black dot in the middle is Miss Molly

Here comes Blitz with the ball that I didn't think he would find.

So as you can see we are still experiencing blizzards up here (too bad it was a Sunday and not a work day), maybe we should of checked the weather BEFORE we headed out instead of AFTER. Needless to say we didn't last long out there, probably took us longer to get ourselves and the dogs bundled up than the actually amount of time we were outside. Oh well it was an adventure, scary one but an adventure.

And here's the weather report for my friend Sandy who always asks about the weather whenever we talk. The actual temps are rising slowly but the winds keep the thermometer sitting in the -40'c range. Good news is that the sun is staying up longer, today is rose at 6:33am and the sunset was at 7:38pm. As we get ready to say good-bye to March we will have a month and half to wait until we experience 24 hour daylight again for about 6 weeks.

This weekend will be a busy one, I have another photo shoot with Gloria, one of the band members of Scary Bear Soundtrack and a lawyer here in town. She needs some professional headshots done and we will give it a try on Friday after work. Saturday is the annual kick off of spring with a huge cancer fundraising evening. Craig's band, Latitude 69, will be playing and I am honoured to be one of the hostesses with the mostesses. haha I will try to update the blog on Sunday to let you all know how everything went.